Prospective Photographers

Icon Sportswire is always looking for talented and experienced professional photographers interested in regularly photographing sports events on deadline. Icon Sportswire chooses new photographers based on need in a geographic or metropolitan area or specialization in covering a particular team or sport. If you are interested in working with the most respected agency in the industry, we would love to hear from you.

Prospective photographers must possess and be competent with the following:

Ability to capture, process, caption, and transmit digital images on site and on deadline during events
Digital camera bodies and a variety of super telephoto lenses.

Expectations of an Icon Sportswire Photographer

Acknowledge and follow all instructions and guidelines set forth by the Icon Sportswire staff and photographer contract
Understand and accept constructive feedback
Adapt your shooting style and/or camera settings in order to meet our quality standards
Accuracy with caption data, and an acceptance that caption data is more important than the images
Strict adherence to our Photographer Code of Conduct

Approved camera bodies

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV to present, 80D to present, 5DMkII to present, 6DMkII to present, 7dMkII to present
Nikon D4 to present, D500 to present
Professional Nikon, Canon, and Sony mirrorless cameras are allowed so long as they are not your primary camera body.

* If you are using an older camera body, even if it is not your main camera, it may no longer have the image quality that we require.

Camera bodies that are NOT approved

ALL Canon Rebel cameras, all cameras older than 1 generation of the models listed above
ALL Nikon consumer cameras with a 4-digit model number. eg: D7500, D3400, and all cameras older than 1 generation of the models listed above
Consumer cameras of any brand. You must, at minimum, have 1-2 professional grade camera bodies.
Any camera or brand that is not on the approved list.

Lenses required for specific sports

A 300mm lens that is either a prime or a professional grade zoom is required no matter which sport you shoot. A 70-200 with a 1.4x teleconvertor or a zoom lens that lacks a fixed/constant aperture is not accepted as your “long” glass.
Basketball: Minimum 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Football: Minimum 300/2.8, 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Hockey: Minimum 70-200/2.8 at ice level, 300/2.8 in an overhead shooting position, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Baseball: Minimum 300/2.8 (400/2.8 preferred), 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Soccer: Minimum 300/2.8 (400/2.8 or longer preferred), 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Auto Racing: Minimum 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8. Longer telephoto lenses may be needed depending on track size and shooting position.
Golf: Minimum 300/2.8 (longer preferred), 70-200/2.8, and a wide angle zoom lens such as a 24-70/2.8
Super telephoto zoom lenses (200-400, etc) are also permitted for all sports so long as they are professional grade.

Other requirements

Laptop computer with WiFi capability and/or Ethernet. The latest Mac or PC operating systems installed (where applicable)
Photo Mechanic 5 or newer (preferred and used by Icon Sportswire staff)
FotoStation
Adobe Photoshop CS4 or higher
Adobe Lightroom (Please note that our support for this program is minimal and we discourage the use of it because of its destructive nature to caption data)
Adobe Bridge CS4 or higher
Apple Aperture 2
Nikon Capture NX